This invention relates to machines for counting articles, for example pills or capsules, and filling the proper count of articles into each of a number of receptacles, for example bottles, brought to a stationary position at a filling station. Such machines are characterized by an endless conveyor comprising article receiving flights adapted to discharge into side-by-side chutes having discharge tubes which in turn discharge into a suitable receptacle, such as a bottle or the like. Each of the flights is elongated and has a plurality of article receiving locations aligned with the chutes, and each flight delivers the same number of articles to each chute. A given number of filled flights will thus load each receptacle or bottle with a given number of articles or pills.
Occasionally, one or more article receiving locations on a conveyor flight will, for one reason or another, not contain an article. The receptacle associated with that article receiving location will therefore be under-filled by one article. The present invention is directed to a solution to the problem of automatically detecting the absence of articles at an article receiving location on a coveyor flight and for ultimately ejecting under-filled receptacles.